Home-grown Violence Ends Innocence

December 25, 1995|by CHRISTINE SCHIAVO, The Morning Call

Tobyhanna Army Depot came close to the same fate when the government threatened to shut it down and send its 3,600 employees packing. Base workers celebrated when Tobyhanna was not on the list of 79 bases Congress approved for closure in September.

An Allentown landmark's days were numbered when Bon-Ton Department Stores announced last month it would close Hess's old flagship store on Hamilton Mall on Jan. 15. The news fell hard on city officials who already were worried about the future of the downtown shopping district.

Before the announcement, some officials figured removing the canopies on Hamilton Mall would boost business.

The canopy controversy, which had been brewing in council for months, heated up in November when Mayor William Heydt ordered the canopies down on a portion of Hamilton Mall. And it stayed hot when a split council voted not to override the mayor's action.

West of Allentown the business news was brighter. Nestle opened a $45 million distribution center in the Route 100 corridor in Upper Macungie Township. Perrier built a bottling plant nearby. And Coca-Cola announced in July that it would open a syrup-making plant in the corridor in 1998.

PP&L Resources pulled off the most brazen business move of the year by going toe-to-toe with a utility giant bent on taking over the company.

PP&L sucked up a whirlwind of local support to blow off PECO Energy Co.'s takeover attempt in November. PP&L customers applauded the company's stamina months after they booed a 4.5 percent PP&L rate hike.

Attempts to stimulate the regional economy fell flat when Phillies owner Bill Giles blocked the Ballyard project that would have brought a minor league baseball club to the Valley.

U.S. Rep. Paul McHale has spearheaded efforts to save the project through legislation that would lessen team owners' control over minor league expansion.

Our thoughts turned easily to baseball and sunny skies as snow seemed to drop by the truckload on the region's streets. Snow fell at least five times before the official start of winter, building up to a crippling 1-foot fall finale Dec. 19.

The precipitation more than made up for one of the driest summers on record. The governor declared a drought emergency Sept. 20 and restricted water use throughout eastern Pennsylvania. Conservation measures helped, but the deluge of October was the real savior, replenishing reservoirs enough to end the emergency in November.

The drought may have had something to do with the deaths of 50 ducks on Lake Muhlenberg in Allentown in September. Autopsy results on a sampling of ducks couldn't determine if they had died from a buildup of bacteria in the murky water.

Earlier in the summer, more than 100 ducks and one goose were found dead on the lake. The state Game Commission concluded those ducks had ingested an insecticide and may have been deliberately poisoned.

The year wasn't without its button-popping moments. In September, farm girl-turned-teacher Linette Mertz of Kutztown made the region and the state proud by representing Pennsylvania in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.

Kutztown was in the news when President Clinton addressed a crowd at the university in January. The event was marred by the arrest of an East Texas man who was carrying a loaded handgun along the president's motorcade route. Police later decided not to file charges against him.

During his trip to the region, Clinton extended a White House invitation to Chris Fina, 8, of Breinigsville. Chris, an ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Camelot for Children in Allentown, chatted with the president for a half-hour in the Oval Office in May.

Clinton also invited Special Olympian Troy Rutter of Orefield for a visit that left the president huffing and puffing. Rutter, a marathon runner, jogged three miles with the president in Washington in June. A month later, Rutter, 25, won the first-ever marathon gold medal in the Special Olympics World Games.

The president wasn't the only dignitary to make his way to the region. Mother Teresa spoke against abortion to a packed St. Joseph's Church in Mahanoy City in June.

And in the category of "some things never change," there was the sinkhole.

Last year the ground up-and-gobbled a seven-story office building in downtown Allentown. This year it bit a chunk of lawn and driveway from two Crest Avenue homes in West Allentown.

The sinkhole unsettled Dorothy Abramson's home. As she was counting the damage in thousands of dollars, an agent with the city's insurance company told her the city wouldn't be paying for repairs.

"My (blood) pressure was 170 over 100 and he's telling me the city isn't liable for this," said a very upset Abramson.